China-based smartphone vendor Oppo’s flagship R9s was the third best-selling smartphone model in the world in Q1 2017, taking a 2.5 per cent global share with shipments of 8.9 million units, Strategy Analytics announced.

“Oppo is largely unknown in the Western world, but its brand is wildly popular in China and growing rapidly across India,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics said in a statement.

Indeed separate, related, figures from Canalys show Oppo was the number two smartphone vendor in China in Q1, with a 17 per cent market share.

“The R9s is Oppo’s flagship 4G device with key features such as dual-SIM connectivity and fingerprint security,” Mawston said.

Global smartphone shipments picked up momentum in Q1, increasing 6.1 per cent year-on-year to 353.3 million units, Strategy Analytics announced. Mawston said the top-five most popular models together accounted for one in six of all smartphones shipped during the quarter.

Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were the first and second most popular smartphone models in Q1, with global market shares of 6.1 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively. Shipments of the iPhone 7 reached 21.5 million units, while iPhone 7 Plus shipments hit 17.4 million.

Samsung’s Galaxy J3 captured fourth place, with shipments of 1.6 million units giving it a 1.7 per cent market share, while the Galaxy J5 ranked fifth on shipments of 5 million units and 1.4 per cent share.

The two midrange devices sold well across Europe and Asia and “helped to offset Samsung’s troubles with the Note 7 battery fiasco”, said Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics.